Blackhawks

Game 6 of the Cup finals is today. The 'Hawks have taken Chicago by storm. Everywhere you look, the city is red and black.
While I'm not a lifelong hockey fan by any means, living in a city with an event this big is exciting.

Chicago Dogs

If you have never been to Chicago, these dogs should be on your list of foods to try. Particularly delightful in the summertime, the Windy City turns scrap meat into an art form. Each ingredient is carefully selected and placed on the dog, resulting in a pleasurable combination in every bite.
Here is my humble attempt. (Note -- for a true dog, the relish should be bright green, and there should be peppers on top.)

Tetelestai!

Think back eight years. What were you doing then? How has life changed for you in these past 8 years.
My past 8 years has included most of high school, all of college, and a year in the real world. Talk about a life-changing experience! Yet through these past 8 years, the burden of The Exam has been on me. It hasn’t always been a heavy burden. But it comes and goes. Sometimes in the back of my mind, sometimes in the forefront, sometimes taking it over entirely and running with it the subject of a different blog.
But now the exam is done. Words cannot describe the elation I felt. At least in English. The Greek tetelestai (te-TELL-es-tie) fits aptly. Someone famous used that phrase once – what he went through before uttering the word makes my 5 months of stress seem like heaven. Even that word couldn’t start describing the elation he went through when “It is finished” (the English translation of the 3rd person singular, perfect active indicative of teleo).
The small group crew went out to eat afterwards to celebrate. Walking across town felt so freeing – I’m not doing flash cards now. And God knows if I’ll ever have to do them again. The weather felt like it would storm – so what? The exam is done! I don’t know exactly where this eatery is – so what? The exam is done! That mantra became my response to any problem encountered. A couple weeks later, some of the adrenaline has worn off. But the joy hasn’t. What if, as Christians, our response to personal difficulties would be – so what? Christ has died for my sins and I’ll spend an eternity with him!
Many people have asked me what I’ll do with myself after the exam is over. That is a very legitimate question. As much as actuaries might sometimes dislike taking exams, they do provide discipline and order to one’s life, a sense that one’s time is spent in a worthwhile endeavor. My initial response mentions the 50-item list of “opportunities after exam” formerly called “to-do list after exam,” but that title was too discouraging. This fairly broad list, created sporadically and wishfully throughout the study process, encompasses a wide array of activities, from taking classes to reading books to visiting people to blogging.
God has provided so many opportunities in life. Perhaps he will stick something in my face and ask me: “Go, do this.” Sometimes he works that way. Oftentimes, though, he gives us opportunities and it is our responsibility to initiate and pursue them, actively seeking his will.
Readers, I have some questions and a request for you. Most of you haven’t taken these exams, but maybe you are wrestling with some of these same questions. What have you come up with? How do you balance leisure and productivity outside of a highly-structured environment? How do you seek relevant ways to serve the Kingdom while making time for friends and family and having fun?
The request has to do with accountability. While I am attempting to wrestle with these dilemmas, actively engaging in life, there is also something in me which wants to plop down on the futon all evening, doing nothing, thinking about nothing. So as readers who also know me in real life, you are not only welcome but encouraged at any point to ask me how I’m doing with this, what I’m going through now, etc. Regardless of how it’s actually going, I’ll probably figure out a somewhat honest answer which will make you happy. But the shrewd ones among you are, well, shrewd.
Speaking of shrewd, can you spot my newly-graduated sister in the crowd?

Pictures IV, Camping

The computer is working again! Switching hard drives was the trick, so it likely is some sort of infection in the newer drive. So now I can get the pictures off the camera and publish them online.

A couple weeks ago, a group from church went camping. Following are pictures from a hiking excursion.

One of the islands from the map was called "Leopold No. 1". Initially we were wondering if this was it. It wasn't.

Part of our hiking crew.

There were many of these mini-waterfalls.

This shot is taken from Starved Rock (where a group of Native Americans allegedly were starved to death in a siege). The ledge in the trees is called Lover's Leap. According to legend, a young maiden jumped to her death after her beloved married another woman.

Pictures III, Air and Water Show

Here are more pictures from a blogged-about event.

Look closely and you can see a couple planes.

Look even closer to find parachutes.

Why waste an advertising opportunity?

One of the few planes which is big and slow enough to be photographed, a C-17.

Pictures II, Architectural Tour

Perhaps you read the post about one of the lake/river tours. Here are some pictures from another, similar tour.

My sister is the best.

Now it's called the Willis Tower.

Here is an example of some contemporary architecture. Part of the beauty of this building is that it fits well with those around it. (Good fit not captured here.)

Fun along the Chicago River.

The four domes on each corner are composed of a flammable material and filled with water. Chicago fire safety anyone?

I love this view.

Home, sweet home.

Pictures I, Lakeside Events

Park's annual baptism service is held on a Sunday morning at the lake. Despite the early start, there was quite a nice turnout.


A couple weeks later was Venetian night. Many pictures could have been taken; unfortunately I temporarily misplaced my camera.

Podcast of the [insert time period here]

If you live in Chicago, you will become quite familiar with the public transit system. It is quite a nice set of trains and buses, and one of the reasons I don't have a car (the other reason is because of the crazy parking, but parking is outside the scope of this post). While the public transit does take a bit more time, it has a couple significant benefits:
1. Less stress. Yeah, driving through the streets of Chicago isn't necessarily the mostr relaxing activity on the planet. But driving is also outside this topic's scope.
2. More free time. While travelling, one doesn't have to give one's attention to the streets. (Sometimes this can be taken too far and causing the missing of a stop, but of course that hasn't happened to me...right?)

Having this free time has opened me up to the world of podcasts. Previously, I would listen to about one podcast ever month, for instance in the rare event of having a long and solo drive. Now, I probably average at least an hour a day of podcasts. The beauty of this technology is it transforms tasks which would be wearisome to being quite mentally stimulating and educational.

Throughout the course of blogging, I hope to cover my favorite podcasts. When that reservoir of blog-material has emptied, you might hear about favorite individual episodes.

Podcast #1: EconTalk
This is far and away my favorite. Russ Roberts, professor at George Mason University, brings in a guest every week to interview. The fellows range from another econ professor to a CEO of a hospital to authors to Nobel prize winners. Topics vary widely, but largely relate principals of economics to everyday life of which you and I are familiar. Two of my favorite episodes are:
Collier on the Bottom Billion (1/28/08) -- an author, whose book has been taking off in sales, is discussing some root problems with poverty around the world and trying to figure out similarities amoung impoverished peoples.
Caplan on the Myth of the Rational Voter (6/25/07) -- another author discusses politics. A large portion of the conversation is centered around the question: "In other disciplines, such as history, people who don't know much about a subject tend to trust the experts. Why is it that in economic situations people don't trust, through their votes, the advice traditional economic experts give?"

What I love about this podcast is that it exposes a facet of economics which most people, whether having studied economics or not, do not appreciate is that economics goes beyond numbers and self-interest. Dr. Roberts does a great job of asking questions to keep the conversation interesting, and hopefully accessible for non-econ folks.
Maybe you are thinking: "Yeah, Ben, that's you. But that wouldn't interest me at all." I beg to differ. Give it a try. If you just listen to one, check out "Roberts on the Price of Everything" (8/25/08). Let me know how it goes.

So here's my question for you readers: Do any of you listen to podcasts? Please share, because there are a lot of hidden gems out there.

My computer

You know how some people hang on to a clunky car past its lifetime? Eventually it just starts breaking and it might be worthwhile just getting a new one, but they hang onto it?
I am starting to get that way with one of my computers. It is about 4 years old -- about the typical lifespan for computers these days. So what do I do early this year? I get a new hard drive and upgrade my ram. Yay! Much better than having to re-install all my old software.
Just a couple weeks ago, my computer wouldn't boot. As in, the operating system won't load.
By God's providence, there is a complete backup of my harddrive back at home. So come September I'll be able to get that. And a friend of mine is good with hardware (sorry to ruin it for you, but unfortunately just because one received a degree in computer science doesn't mean that person knows all there is to know about computers...or even enough to fix his own notebook).

All this to explain why:
1. There haven't been many blog posts as of late
2. The blog posts that have been posted don't have pictures
3. Any written (typed) communication with you has been brief and to the point

Chicago Event: Air and Water Show

"Welcome to the largest free air and water show in America."
Rumor has it, over 2 million people came to the 2-day event. I'm not sure if it was quite that big of a turnout, but the beaches were packed. In fact, the event became an air show for me because I wasn't close to being able to see the water.
If you like planes or noise, this was the time for you. There were classic military jets, bombers, and even refueling planes. Various bi-planes flew around doing stunts. Even some of the military jets had some neat tricks. My favorite was one by biplane pilot Sean Tucker who had quite an arsenal of stunts, and fully narrated too.
My only complaint is that the whole event seemed a bit stretched out -- about 6 hours in total and they could have crammed it in to something closer to 2 hours.
Overall, the time was well spent. Even upon finding my kneecaps painfully pink later.

Activity

The lack of posting lately has been due to the arrival of family and more family. These last couple weeks have been loads of fun. From going to 4 baseball games, to eating more than my share of pizza to a boat tour (mentioned below), we had a great time. They didn't mind sleeping on the "crouton" (futon) or taking it to Caleb and me in a few games of 500. The guests were doing their part to lend a hand, too, as they assisted a biker who had crashed and fallen unconscious.

Chicago Tip: Architecture Tour

One of the activites the Manderfields brought us on was Wendella's architecture boat tour of downtown Chicago. This was a great experience. The day was absolutely beautiful. The views were incredible. So much fascinating information was given to us.
A couple highlights:
The Hancock building is built in such a way that if all the inside walls and other structure were removed, the building would still stand -- and still be structurally sound.
Did you ever notice that tower right by Navy pier that sticks out a bit? There was a zoning agreement in Chicago that towers like that weren't allowed to be on the shoreline in order to keep the shore clean. The reason that it was there is because of a loophole because basically the law was about "real land," and the tower was built on refuse thrown into the lake.